


Visions

by misplacedUnrepentantNerd



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Related, Dehydration, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Force Visions, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jedi Finn (Star Wars), Jedi Rey (Star Wars), Not A Fix-It, Platonic Relationships, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Starvation, Tatooine (Star Wars), Trippy, Young Rey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23353225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misplacedUnrepentantNerd/pseuds/misplacedUnrepentantNerd
Summary: "Rey rested her hand absent-mindedly on the stone table. Something in her head (or was it mind? Soul? Spirit? The Force?) broke open with a pop. On the other side of the table appeared a younger version of herself holding a metal cup full of water. A mirror sat on the far side of the table.'Finn, did a younger me just appear out of nowhere?''Yes. Are you seeing a mirror too?''Yep.'The young Rey gestured towards the mirror. Rey approached it and looked into it tentatively. The face staring back at her was definitely not hers. Confused and scared, Rey looked to the young Rey, who gestured behind her and Finn."***Several years after the Resistance's victory at Exegol, Jedi Master Rey Skywalker and Admiral Finn Skywalker-Dameron investigate an abandoned site on Tatooine, which local Force sensitives say is haunted.Part covid-19 processing, part experimentation with how to write Rey and Finn (and maybe ultimately Ben too) as a new generation of Jedi in Clone Wars style adventure/mystery shorts. This one has Mortis arc vibes. Feedback is helpful and welcomed.Rating may be high because there isn't a middleground between General Audiences and Teen and Up.
Relationships: Finn & Ben Solo, Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Rey & Ben Solo
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

Rey and Finn arrived at the ruin on Tatooine and stepped off their speeder. After climbing the hill up, they found themselves in a cave where the sun broke through a hole in the ceiling. In the middle of the cave lay a stone table.

“This doesn’t look like much,” Rey said.

Finn looked at her with incredulity.

“The Wayfinder didn’t look like much, and that gave us all kinds of trouble. The local Force sensitives can’t all be wrong about this place being odd, if not haunted.”

“I don’t doubt it. I’m just not sure you and I are the Force sensitives who should try to figure this place out.”

“The most powerful Jedi in the galaxy and one of the Resistance’s Force admirals who also has Force sensitivity? They asked for our help.”

Finn made a brisk start for the table. Rey chuckled to herself and started after him.

“Yes, but I’m not yet sure these are things we have the tools to explain.”

Finn looked back at her from near the stone table.

“Are you sure that’s reverent doubt or the doubt Luke planted in you on Ahch-to?”

Rey looked at him, only half-scandalized.

“I don’t think that was Luke’s doing, but yes, I’ve let life and the Force chasten me a bit as time has worn on.”

Finn raised his eyebrows and shook his head, suppressing a laugh, as she approached the table.

“What?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all—”

“—Admiral Finn Skywalker-Dameron, I _swear_ —"

Rey rested her hand absent-mindedly on the stone table. Something in her head (or was it mind? Soul? Spirit? The Force?) broke open with a pop. On the other side of the table appeared a younger version of herself holding a metal cup full of water. A mirror sat on the far side of the table.

“Finn, did a younger me just appear out of nowhere?”

“Yes. Are you seeing a mirror too?”

“Yep.”

The young Rey gestured towards the mirror. Rey approached it and looked into it tentatively. The face staring back at her was definitely not hers. Confused and scared, Rey looked to the young Rey, who gestured behind her and Finn.

A tall, pale figure with messy, dark hair lay prone in the dust. Sand and dust clung to his light plainclothes, which had started to tear. He coughed violently and his posture spoke of fear and exhaustion.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the work summary, I admitted that this work is partially a covid-19 processing fic. I mean that in more the metaphorical, emotional, and spiritual sense as a way to grieve everything that's happening, not as a demonstration of what good social distancing looks like.

Rey cried before she could think and raced towards Ben as he struggled to pick himself up. Finn shouted something incomprehensible after her and followed.

Kneeling before Ben, Rey met his eyes, which said that he hadn’t eaten nor drank anything in too long. Shaking and close to tears, Rey turned to her younger self, who stood serenely behind the altar.

“May we use the water in the cup? If it’s for some ritual, then it can be used to help him.”

The young Rey nodded. Finn came up behind Rey and rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Get the cup and the mirror. I can carry him to the shade on my own. I’ll call for help once he’s out of the sun.”

Rey nodded and turned towards the altar while Finn knelt in front of Ben.

“I don’t know you, but Rey does and that’s enough for now. I can help get you out of the sun. Is that okay?”

Ben turned to Finn and nodded.

“Can you walk at all?”

Ben shook his head, coughing once more into his sleeve and shaking while doing so.

“Ok. Can you get yourself on your back?”

Ben struggled to speak.

“With help,” he managed to say.

Finn offered his hand. Ben took it and let Finn twist him around so that he lay on his back. After dusting him off as much as didn’t feel invasive, Finn got his arms under Ben’s shoulders and knees, picked him up, and carried him out of the sun. He found a rock big enough for Ben to sit against, set him down in front of it, and helped him lean against it.

“Will you be all right here until Rey gets here? I’m going to go call for help.”

“Yes, thank you … how should I call you?”

“Finn. You?”

Ben saw his hand start to tense, but took as deep a breath as he could, willed his hand to give, and let the breath go.

“Ben.”

Seeing that Rey approached, Finn started off for the speeder. Rey met Finn, handed off the mirror, and came to Ben as fast as she could without losing any of the water.

“This is all yours but take a little at a time. It won’t come as quite the same shock to your system that way.”

Ben nodded and did as he was told. Having worked his way through most of the water, he leaned back against the rock. Though still covered in dust, the muscles in his face and shoulders relaxed some.

Finn returned with a rehydration tablet, a portion packet, and a vial of bacta. He left as quickly as he came.

Rey unwrapped the tablet and gave it to Ben, who consumed it even though it tasted awful. She used the last of the water to make the portion in the cup and broke off pieces it for him to eat. He ate them so quickly that Rey feared that he would choke.

Once the portion was gone, Rey tore her hood from her back, folded it, and poured some bacta out of the vial and into a section of the fabric.

“If you’re as dehydrated and undernourished as you seem, you’re likely also sun burnt everywhere you’re exposed.”

Ben chuckled weakly in between coughs.

“That would be my luck.”

Rey unwrapped her bindings, ran some through the bacta, and wrapped them around his hands. She did the same with some others and pressed them against his neck and collar. The rest, she smoothed over his face.

Ben started to reach out to her with his wrapped hands but caught himself. Rey sat next to him and wrapped her arms around him, resting her hands on one shoulder and her chin on the other.

Closing his eyes, Ben leaned his head against the rock and wept openly. Feeling powerless, Rey held him tighter.

When Ben had calmed down again, Rey unwrapped his hands and removed the compresses. With the little left, she traced the lines where his tears had sliced open the bacta’s healing layer.

Ben started to lift a hand towards Rey’s as she did so, but hesitated. Rey saw his half gesture and took his hand in her free one as she finished reapplying the bacta. She then brushed some recalcitrant strands of hair out of his eyes and rested the tips of her fingers on his temple, letting bittersweet gratitude shape her gaze. He suppressed a smile with the corners of his mouth, but let it pass across his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

As Finn approached though, Rey released Ben’s hand, got to her feet, and walked to meet him.

“How is he?”

“He seems to be coming around as best as anyone can. Any word?”

“Not yet, but I have a com on me. I know his name is Ben, but who is he?”

Rey looked away from Finn, trying to hide the tears clinging to her eye lashes.

“The other half of the Force Dyad I’m part of, or was a part of.”

“When were you going to tell me about this?”

“It didn’t seem relevant. He died years ago.”

Rey didn't have to look at Finn to feel his question.

“Force Ghosts do exist. They normally have this serene, blue-ish aura though when you see them. They’re definitely not dehydrated and malnourished.”

“Is there _any_ chance he’s alive?”

Rey’s voice broke.

“I saw him disappear just like in all the stories about Jedi when they die. Whatever form he appears to us now has to account for that.”

Fresh tears cut rivers down her face. Finn wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks. It's not your fault though. I didn't tell anyone.”

Finn let Rey go, resting his hands on her shoulders. His eyes asked all kinds of questions, but he decided to let them all go when she didn't volunteer answers. Looking around the clearing again, Rey noticed that Ben, the cup, the mirror, and her younger self had all disappeared. Wiping her eyes, she took a deep breath in and let it go.

"So it seems safe to say this place somehow collapses time and space without Force Ghosts, a Force Bond, or the World Between Worlds," Finn said.

“But if this place collapses time and space, it seems like it would be inner time and space that it collapses and projects into some kind of externalized vision--"

"--So we were essentially walking in a Force hologram of potential dream space whose source is someone's memory. In this case, yours."

Rey nodded.

“So what did we just see mean?”

Rey looked down.

“Arguably, it’s just stating what I already know. That Ben was, after a fashion, sick and needed help. I gave it to him as best as I could, but I couldn’t keep him alive in the end. Anything aside from that? I don’t know."

"We need to talk more to the locals then. I'll drive this time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I can imagine it stopping here, and calling it a short story about memory. I can also imagine running with the Clone Wars-y (adventure + snark + angst) vibe with sequel trilogy characters and expand the story. Strong preferences? Let me know in the comments!


End file.
